​ HP Microserver gen 8 fan speed - all you need to know

[Jochem]

CURRENT AS OF JUNE 2016

Tested on HP Microserver Gen 8 - BIOS J06 11/02/2015

 

This is a small write-up to those newcomers who want to know "it-all" about the unfamous fan speed, related to the AHCI and B120i RAID setting.

 

Most of it is known and can be found in this forum. One detail is new (maybe). I hope the write-up is correct, but i can't be sure! Thanks for all the info from previous posters.

 

Minimum fan speed is different depending on the choice for AHCI (minimum around 14%) or RAID settings (minimum around 6%). Some say the difference is quite small, others feel the lower speed is preferable.

 

In order to get the lowest fan speed you have to arrange ALL of the following:

• Use the B120i controller mode
• Load an operating system including the official HP drivers, especially the AMS (Agentless Management Service)
• Place a least 1 (one) disk in a RAID0 array
• Use at least 1 (one) disk in an array with uses the SMART temperature attribute 194. Note: Attribute 190 does not work, example: Samsung 830 SSD.

 

If all this is is arranged a sensor value appears in iLO: HD max. HD max seems to be the highest value (temperature) of the SMART attribute 194 of all disks available. In this case the fan speeds are managed starting with the lower value of 6%. If anything misses, fan speed management starts around 14%.

 

The exact mechanism is now know. It is reasonable certain the ASM driver returns the HD-max value, because without ASM driver it doesn't work.

 

The disk temperature data can be returned to either iLO or to BIOS to manage fan speed. If it's to iLO this could be checked by disabling iLO and checking the fan speed. Maybe the fan can still be monitored from within the operating system, maybe not. Please note iLO permanently consumes about 5W so maybe someone is interested in this experiment.

 

You can check disk temps during RAID setup. If there is a correct SMART 194 attribute, it shows up at the physical disk info. ONLY during RAID configuration you can check individual disk temperatures. After booting an OS, including the HP drivers, only the HD-max info is available.

 

Please note again that the Microserver only uses the SMART attribute 194 and not 190 which is also a temperature attribute.

Edited June 14, 2016 by Jochem

[tezray]

I am going to check all this tomorrow I changed to raid to get lower fan speed but am now sitting at 30 percent speed it is so noisy in my front room I have been considering getting rid of it. Only problem I can see is I use Windows 10 and the Hp drivers or software don't seem to load I will check the drivers you have listed see if I can find the right ones on the Hp website thanks for the information.

 

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[scorpi2ok2]

And if I'm not using the B120i controller ?

[Jochem]

And if I'm not using the B120i controller ?

"If anything misses, fan speed management starts around 14%", this includes missing the  (use of the) B120i controller

Edited June 16, 2016 by Jochem

[scorpi2ok2]

So..if I want silence I have to use the B120i controller...

Edited June 16, 2016 by scorpi2ok2

[Jochem]

So..if I want silence I have to use the B120i controller...

Yes. Plus the items from the other three bullets in the 'requirement' list..

 

But... you probably could circumvent all requirements except for one: Suppose you would know how the AMS driver is communicating with the fan-speed firmware. Then you could write a fake AMS driver and just return any HD max value you like! AHCI or B120i would not matter anymore.

 

So why is fan speed handled in this complex way?

1. using a driver in the operating system, and
2. only with B120i and not in AHCI mode

I speculate the following. Most temperature sensors can be read independantly. Reading them does not interfere with anything. BIOS can do this without issues.

But to read the disk temperature, you must perform a disk SATA command. But wait, the disk is managed and under control by someone else! Namely the loaded OS. So you must inject temperature reading code somewhere in the running OS. This is easily done in the B120i driver, which has to be provided anyway and is under full control by HP. Replacing the standard OS AHCI driver and introducing unexpected extra SATA commands is less funny and could possibly lead to strange effects.

 

You could argue that AHCI mode is "not fully supported", but also state that AHCI is supported fine and B120i mode has "advanced temperature profile support" 

 

Note: and then there was someone who hacked the iLO firmware for lower fan speeds years ago, so is seems iLO is indeed needed for lowest speed fan control. Which makes me think: disable iLO => higher fan speed

Edited June 17, 2016 by Jochem

[justaguy]

My Gen8 has an SSD connected to the B120 configured as RAID 0 for boot. I have a P222 with 3 drives. I'm running 2012R2 and all was good and I had a nice quiet unit,

 

Then I upgraded the P222 firmware from 6.00 to 7.02 now my fan is running full speed. It starts slow while booting, speeds up a bit at the end of POST. It then dips to low speed mode for just a couple of seconds as the OS starts loading. By the time it's at the logon screen the fan is at full speed.

 

I tried updating the OS P222 drivers and there was no change.

 

All was good until I updated the P222. Anybody know where I can get the 6.00 firmware or have other ideas?

[GotNoTime]

All was good until I updated the P222. Anybody know where I can get the 6.00 firmware or have other ideas?

Click on the Revision History tab on the HPE download page for the P222 firmware. It'll link to all the previous released versions of the firmware.

 

I don't have any problems with 7.02 firmware on my P222 but I'm using vSphere. I'd be wary of using 6.00 firmware as well since there have been significant bugs fixed since then.

[tezray]

Jochem can I ask how you set one drive in an array with attribute 194. I have an Intel ssd on port 5 internal sata connector raid 0. 1x 3tb port 1 and 1x 3tb port 2 as a raid 1 array. I have added a 500gb in port 4 as raid 0 to see if I can use attribute 194 but see nothing? I have windows 10 installed have installed all drivers that will allow installation. I am at 19% fan speed since adding the 500gb drive which is much nicer than the 29% I was on but it is still too loud for my living room. I have hd-max showing in ilo as 35c. Forgot to mention I also have an I3-3240 in mine.

 

I read somewhere that western digital drives might not show temperature well so I have swapped out that 500gb drive and put in a seagate 500gb in port 4 and setup as raid 0 I didn't see attribute 194 still though fan is 19% still and hd-max 35c still.

 

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Edited June 23, 2016 by tezray

[Jochem]

Jochem can I ask how you set one drive in an array with attribute 194. [...] I am at 19% fan speed since adding the 500gb drive which is much nicer than the 29%. [...] I have hd-max showing in ilo as 35c.

Hi tezray,

Maybe there is some misunderstanding. You explain that iLO shows the HD-Max sensor. That means that at least one of your drives in the B120i has a SMART 194 temperature attribute. So, thats good. Problably the drive you added when you got down to 19% (from 29%) has this attibute. It seems you cannot get it better with your setup. Maybe the inlet temp + all the hard drives generating heat lead to the 19% fan speed.

Edited June 25, 2016 by Jochem